Alright already, I'm updating my blog!!!

I haven't had a whole lot to say recently, and I haven't felt "funny" either. I've been kind of retreating ever since Brian's lay off and Steve's heart situation.

But I received an email today from my cousin Cookie, telling me to get back on my blog. She must know that I'm Facebooking in every spare minute. OK, so she's right. I am. They changed the entire format of the site and I've been waging a war against the developers, along w/ some other pissed off people, all weekend. It will do no good, of course. What do they care if 5 million people want their old format back, when they have over 100 million who use the site? Fenwayspal will back me up on how cumbersome and confusing it is. Yet Holly thinks it looks neat and tidy. Ellen keeps cracking me up on her status updates; she ends each one with "....and I still hate the new Facebook." I toyed with deleting my profile, but I'd feel so guilty killing off all my virtual pets. And I've gotten back in contact w/ so many people from high school and college, and made new friends. So I guess I have no choice but to grudingly deal w/ the new changes.

No news on the job front for Brian. Nordstrom, a very hoity toity retail clothing/home store wanted Brian to work in their Workers Comp dept. The pay would have been comparable to Weyco. The hitch? It's in downtown Seattle, near Westlake Center. Ain't no way Brian's going to be commuting to Seattle. Driving is out of the question. There is a train, but the schedule is limited and it ends near the stadiums. He'd then have to take a bus, or buses, to get to Westlake. It's not convenient. In fact, I was the one that talked him out of it. He thought he could deal w/ it, but I KNOW he will be miserable. We did not move here so that one of us would end up working in Seattle. I just did not see him in the howling wind and rain of the winter, getting on a crowded city bus which then slogs its way thru horrific traffic to King Street Station, then getting on a crowded train for another 45 minutes to an hour, and he might not get a seat. At his age, and with his health issues, it's just not something he should be undertaking. I should know. I commuted by bus from Fairfax, in Marin County, to downtown San Francisco from August of 1993 through February of 1996. It sucked out loud. 4+ hours per day, round trip, spent on a bus. What made it worse is that my stop in Fairfax was at the end of the line, so after making the hellish trip thru stop and go traffic on Highway 101, we then got off on Sir Francis Drake Blvd. and stopped about 20 or more times in the 10 miles from the exit to my house, also in bumper to bumper traffic. Pro-mass transit people say, "Oh you can read or sleep!" Not when you can't get a seat. And reading/sleeping got old real quick too. I'd look up from my book after what seemed like an eternity thinking we were near the exit to SFD Blvd., and see that we were still creeping along in Sausalito.

I'm sorry but after doing the mass transit thing, I am wholeheartedly against it, unless it can deliver you door to door, the way MUNI did when we lived in San Francisco. My bus stop was on the corner of my street, and the 38 Geary dropped me off at the bus stop in front of my office building. One bus, straight shot. I could even take the express bus if I wanted.

We just don't live in a society that's conducive to carpooling or mass transit. They keep trying to shove light rail down our throats here in Washington and the people resoundingly defeat the measure in every election. Do they get the message? No. They put ANOTHER light rail initiative on the next ballot, only to see that fail as well.

Too many people have things to do after work, appointments, childcare issues, etc. People go to the gym after work, go shopping, schedule their dr. or dentist appts. Whenever I'd commute to SF, and I wasn't feeling well or needed to leave early, I had to wait till 4 pm for the first buses to start going to Marin County from SF. Anything before 4 pm took at the very least 2+ hours, and I had to change buses in San Rafael to get to Fairfax. Then there was the year that a fire broke out very near our townhouses. Brian called to say that he was spraying the cinders w/ our garden hose, but as our place backed up to a hill of dry grass, conflagration was a reality. It would have taken 2 or more hours to get home had I taken the bus. Instead, my boss, Catherine, stuffed a wad of cash into my hand and told me to take a cab, it'd be faster. It was. It was also $75, with tip. No thanks, I like having the convenience of a car, and so does Brian.

Steve's doing really well, but we think he's overdoing it. He has come into the office a couple of times, for about an hour. Everything's fine here. We're busy culling files for closing. We have boxes and boxes of paper that has to go to the professional shredding place. You know what they say, "Save a Tree, Kill an Attorney." But the office looks like a different place. I could kick myself for not taking before and after pictures.

I'll be heading to Portland on Friday morning to meet up w/ Julie for the 2nd annual BFF trip. I can't wait to see her!! Brian suggested I bring my laptop, since the hotel has free wi-fi, but I thought it'd be kind of rude to be on the computer when we're supposed to be spending quality time together laughing and chatting. Last time I checked, the weather was going to be iffy. It figures. It's been hot and sunny for the past 2-3 weeks, but of course when I'm going to travel, we get the ocean air pushing in.

Not much else is going on, except my abject fear that the "Sheeple" of America are going to vote for McCain, and he's one malignant melanoma away from that psycho, right wing, book burner Sarah Palin being our president. She scares the hell out of me. She's a very dangerous woman. I don't see the big attraction to her, just b/c she's a "mom". So what if she's a governor? Most metropolitan areas in the lower 48 have more population than the entire state of Alaska, which tops out around 650,000. It may be our biggest state land-wise, but it's one of the least populated. The Mayor of Seattle has more constituents than Palin does in her entire state. She tried to get a librarian filed when the librarian refused to remove books that Palin objected to. BOOK BURNER!!!! NAZI RIGHT WING BOOK BURNER!!! She couldn't care less about the environment and she's so anti-choice that she doesn't even believe in abortion for rape and incest victims. She's sick.


If she becomes president, she will make faith-based decisions, and this country was NOT founded on Christian principles. Our founding fathers realized that the separation of church and state was tantamount to the new country's success. Those lines have gotten increasingly blurred over the last few years. I do not see a hardcore Christian going toe to toe w/ North Korea, Russia or the middle east. In fact, it is my prediction that should McCain die in office, Palin will lead us into WW3 and we will face certain nuclear anihilation. We're on a slippery slope. Wake up and smell the latte, people. 4 more years of the same bullshit is not acceptable to me.

I urge you guys to go to this site and read this article about Sarah Palin:
http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege

I am hoping that it opens some eyes, although most of my readers think the same way I do. I apologize to my European and Canadian friends for the boring political post. Although I have a message to Canada: You guys should pay close attention to what's going on down here b/c we share a continent with you. The radiation & fallout is gonna blow into Canada. I hope that, if you do elect a new Prime Minister in October, or even if Stephen Harper prevails, that the PM does something to protect Canadian citizens from the runaway train that is America. We're out of control. SAVE YOURSELVES!!!! In 8 long years, we've allowed Bushco to completely gut the country. Someone please give him a blow job so that we can impeach him!!! Fat lot of good that'll do now, though.


McCain is a doddering old man. He's so fucking elitist that he doesn't even know how many homes he owns. OK, so his wife has money. But still. Millions of Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure and this guy doesn't even know how many homes he owns????? He has no clue about the internet; doesn't even use a computer. Yeah he was a war hero blah blah blah, but is he going to ride the Vietnam POW thing forever? It was 40 fucking years ago. MOVE ON.

(Kris, please don't take offense b/c I don't lump you into the same category that I put other Christian zealots like Sarah Palin. You are more open minded than most).

I received the following in an email from my former boss, Jim, in California:

"* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000
people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable."

So I'll be back with a new post after my return from Oregon, with photos!!